REMARKS ON THE EFFECTS OF JETHER. 
263 
destroy life should be inflicted upon the spinal cord, death will 
not ensue immediately, but will be slowly developed, depending 
upon the position, as whether nearer to or farther from the brain ; 
in other words, how much of the body will be affected by it. 
If in the third or fourth cervical vertebra, death will ensue in a 
few hours; and so on, as you proceed downwards, the time becom- 
ing longer and longer; but if at or above the second cervical ver- 
tebra (as in 'pithing ), death will result as quickly as from direct 
injury to the brain, and the result will be, as regards the pheno- 
mena, similar to those arising from direct destruction of the brain 
itself, though not quite so rapid, as is shewn by death from “ pith- 
ing,” that is, division of the spinal cord between the first cervical 
and the occipital bone, as bv this means death ensues by the de- 
struction of the power of the par vagum, and the brain only dies 
as a secondary instead of a primary process. 
It will now be pretty evident that the kind of influence that 
sether produces over the system is through the agency of the 
spinal system of nerves. It paralyses or suspends the function 
of the cord and its branches ; and if this effect is produced too 
frequently, or too long continued, then death will ensue, not im- 
mediate, but slowly, as shewn by that unfortunate case of the 
young woman at Grantham, a short time since. In proof that the 
spinal system is the seat of influence, we find that the mind does 
not become affected ; the perception, both in man and animals, is 
evidently clear, but no power of motion ; and, as a matter of 
necessity, the sympathetic system, from having its principal origins 
from the spinal cord, is put under the condition of the part from 
which it originates; but when the communication with the brain is 
large, then you see pain, or something very like it, evinced. 
Now, when there is a large development of the intellectual 
portions of the brain, whether this be in man or animals, it will 
be observed that the effect of the sether vapour will be modified 
according as this development is greater or less, and, of course, 
vice versa in the opposite degree of development. As regards 
the first condition, the animals operated on in Experiments 2, 3, 
and 4, are illustrative in a marked degree, as external configura- 
tion plainly indicated ; the reverse was shewn, both by outward 
configuration as also by the fact itself upon trial, in the animals 
operated on in Experiments 1, 5, and 6 ; also Experiments 3 and 4 
exemplified the excess of sympathetic influence, as shewn by the 
great irritability of the animal, and was, in reality, the cause of 
death. 
There is one peculiarity from death by sether, that is, the striking 
violet-purple-black colour of the blood. This, no doubt, arises from 
the presence of an excess of carbon, which exists in so large a 
